Suspender-loop.



E. L. ASHLEY.

SUSPENDER LOOP.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 1, 1914.

1,138,587. Patent-ed May 4, 1915.

may. @AZ ZZZZ WITNESSES THE NIJRRIS PETERS 60.. PHQTO-LITHQ. WASHING mm, 17 c rn STATES PATENT ornion EDWARD L. ASHLEY, OF VVATERBUR Y, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR T SGOVILL MANU' FACTURING COMPANY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CON- NEGTICUT.

SUSPENDER-LOOP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1915.

Application filed October 7, 1914. Serial No. 865,517.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD L. ASHLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Suspender- Loops, of which the following is a full, clear,

and exact description.

This invention relates to loops for use on the ends of suspenders, for engaging buttons on trousers, overalls, and other garments. These loops have been made in a variety of ways and of different materials, including wire, and the wire loops have been so made member are separate pieces and the suspender engaging member constructed with a contracted button passage, the resilience has been confined to the suspender engaging member, and the button engaging member has been rigid, which necessitates the provision of a laterally movable connection between the two members to permit expansion of theresillent suspender engaging member.

In the present invention, both the susponder engaging member and the button en-' gag ng member are made resilient, and'by this construction the eyes or other connections by which these two members are hingedly united to swing back and forth may be quite small, and thus effect a saving in metal, and the suspender engaging member may be made considerably shorter than in prior constructions to me known; and further, the loops may bemade 'oflighter wire without sacrificing necessary strength. In this way a very considerable economy in material and a less conspicuous and consequently neater loop is produced.

As already sufliciently indicated, the invention consists in a suspender loop having a suspender engaging member .with a contracted button passage and a button engaging member hingedly connected, both of these members being resilient, as I will proceed now to explain and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings illustratmg the invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure 1 is an elevation illustrating one form of the loop, and indicating by dotted member comprises the bar 1 having the reentrant parts 2 and the bowed sides 3, which bowed sides terminate in eyes 40f practically circular contour. The bowed sides 3 have their eyed ends convergent so as to form the contracted throat 5, so that when the button is passed through the space 6 between'the bowed sides 3, and then it is attempted to pass the shank of the button from space Gthrough the throat 5, the bowed sides 3 will spring apart, as indicated in dotted lines, Fig. 1, so asto permit the but ton to pass the bowed sides 3 into the button engaging member 7 next described.

The button engaging member 7 may be made of lighter wire than the suspender engaging member above described, and such wire also is resilient. The button engaging member 7 is'provided with eyes 8 which engage the eyes 4 in such way as to permit the sides of the button engaging member to spread and contract laterally with the lateral spreading and contracting of the bowed sides 3 of the suspender engaging member, as indicated by dotted and full lines in Fig. .1. These eye connections of the two members of the loop also permit the relative forward and backward swinging movements of these two members to con form to themovements of the wearer, as in Jstooping, and this capability of the loop en "hances its ability to retain its connection with the button no matter what the position of the wearer may be.

The button engaging member may be made of a variety of different metals and be flattened between its eyes, as at 9, in order to increase its resiliency and yet retain sufficient strength to engage the button, and the eyes 10 made of round unflattenedwire. As indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, the button engaging member 11 including its eyes 12, may be made entirely of flat wire. As indicated in Figs. 7 and 8, the button engaging member 13 may be given a form somewhat resembling a V instead of a U, as in Figs. 1, 3 and 5, and the eyes lat may be convergent.

In all of the forms illustrated, after the button is passed from the suspender engaging member into the button engagingmember, the eyes of both members return to their normal position of rest, as indicated in the drawings, and the eyes of the button engaging member become stops to prevent the accidental escape of the button from the loop; and it will be observed that in any such attempt toescape, there must be a force not only sufficient to spread apart the bowed sides 3, but also to spread apart the limbs of the button engaging member. It is necessary or advisable to have the eyes of either one or the other of these members arranged perpendicular to the plane of the loop, so that they may serve as obstacles to prevent the button from escaping or receding from the button engaging member after it is engaged, excepting under intentional pressure of disengaging.

As shown the eyes of the suspender engaging member and those of the button engaging member are arranged at right angles or substantially at right angles, so that the lateral spreading of the members may be readily effected, and also so that these members may have a relative back and forth movement, as indicated by the opposite arrows shown in Fig. 2.

As already sufficiently indicated, the lateral spread of the members is to permit of the engagement and disengagement of the button, and the back and forth movements follow the motions of the wearer in stooping' or bending his body, without displacing th loop from the button.

Other variations in the construction of the parts of the resilient suspenderloop and the relative arrangement of the eyes, are within 5 the scope of the invention herein.

What I claim is 1. A suspender loop, having a resilient suspender engaging member terminating in acontracted button passage, and a resilient button engaging member, these two members being flexibly connected to swing back and forth and both capable of lateral expansion at their connection to permit the pas sage of the button from one member to the other.

2. A suspender loop, having a resilient suspender engaging member terminating in a contracted button passagel and a resilient button engaging member, these two members having interengaging eyes, whereby the engaged portions of both members are capable of lateral expansion and contraction and back and forth swinging movements.

3. A suspender loop, having a suspender engaging member provided with bowed sides and terminating in a contracted button passage and provided with closed eyes at said passage, and a button engaging member terminating in closed eyes engaging with the eyes on the suspender engaging member, these two members being resilient and both capable of spreading laterally at their point of engagement to permit the passage of the button through said contracted passage to and from the button engaging member.

4. A suspender loop, composed of two parts, each made of wire, one of the parts having a bar for connection with a suspender and bowed sides terminating in a contracted button passage and provided with closed eyes at said passage, and the other part having eyes hingedly connected with the eyes of the first-named part to per mit flexing of the two parts of the loop, the

two parts being resilient and both of them yielding laterally at their connection to permit the passage of the button through said contracted passage for engagement with and disengagement from the button.

5. A suspender loop, having a resilient suspender engaging member terminating in a contracted button passage, and a resilient button engaging member, constructed of flat wire, these two members being flexibly connected to swing back and forth and both capable of lateral expansion at their connec- "tion.

V In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my'hand this 26th day of September A. D.

EDWARD L. ASHLEY. Witnesses:

PERCY WARNER, E. A. HYDE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents Washington, DJ 0. 

